EOF: 441 Reasons to Go Linux

HP's community center in Mogalakwena, South Africa, produced an industry first—a four-headed PC.

Walk around any of the four computer labs in the Computer Science
Department at the University of the North (UNIN), 150 miles from
Johannesburg, South Africa. The first thing you notice is that half of
their 250 computing desks have no computers on them.

The lab technician, Melt van Niekerk, will tell you that the aging
machines they do own are used 12 hours a day by 2,800 students
and the warranties expired two years ago. Freddy Nailana, Head of the
Computer Science Department, explains that his budget was cut from 2.5
million rand (about $400,000 US) in 2001 to only 130,000 rand last year.

The challenges could not be more evident. How can UNIN increase
student access to current technology for the lowest possible price,
without sacrificing warranty and service?

At HP, we think we have the answer in the Multiuser 441 desktop
solution. This desktop system allows four users to work simultaneously
and independently on the same CPU, hence the name 441, or
four-for-one. We began with a modified Linux kernel and added four
monitors, keyboards, mice and sound and graphics cards. The result is a
desktop system that costs about half the price of four standalone
desktops.

Linux was the key to developing the 441 solution.
It's inherently a multiuser, multitasking operating
system. It has great security, stability, power and
cost effectiveness—additional elements required by
these markets.

When we launched the HP 441 Multiuser desktop
solution in South Africa in March 2004, people understood
they were looking at a unique approach to solving
emerging-market challenges. The four-users-for-one-CPU
configuration came with a low price and no special
licenses. It also has a healthy bundle of preloaded
educational software and a solid warranty, making it
ideal for cash-strapped schools.

At HP, we've received a flood of inquiries from
people as far afield as Brazil, Austria, Canada,
Malaysia, New Zealand and Egypt—all of them asking,
“When can I have one?”

This is a good problem to have. The demand we're
seeing is a result of a unique approach to designing
solutions for emerging markets. Much of the market
research, product R&D, marketing, distribution
and strategic rollout of the 441 has followed a
nontraditional path within HP.

The Emerging Markets Solutions team at HP manages
two “solution incubation sites”, one in India and
another in South Africa. Known as HP i-communities
(i for inclusion), both facilities are located
in relatively remote, rural areas that have not
seen the kind of information technology explosion
that has transformed urban centers like Bangalore
and Johannesburg.

The HP i-communities serve as test beds for products
and services that are tailored specifically to the
needs of rural emerging-market communities. Through
our deep engagements there, we learned that we
couldn't simply take existing HP products and make them
available to people in remote areas. We had to work
closely with local users to understand their needs—which are very different from those of customers in
developed economies—and then design solutions to
meet them.

Partnering with numerous public and private
organizations, i-community teams have initiated an
impressive array of technology-based social and economic
development programs. The challenge—and opportunity—for HP is in commercializing these solutions for
other emerging markets around the world.

The 441 is the first HP product commercialized for
this environment. It was piloted at the Mogalakwena
i-community in South Africa and is being used in
call centers, tribal authority offices and schools
around the province. Since early 2004, the 441 has
been commercially available throughout South Africa.

The introduction of the 441 has even shown up on the radar
screen of local and national government officials. The
South African government is a strong proponent of
open-source software. It is seen as a strategic way
to lower development costs, localize standard
applications into the nation's 11 official languages
and build the skills set of local software developers.

The support of Linux from governments across emerging
markets makes the 441 a very timely product. At HP,
we're excited about the 441, but we're also excited
about the process that led to its development.
Deep engagement in rural, developing economies is
pointing to a vast new market for the company. The
new solutions developed for this market will draw on
the strengths and advantages of open source.

With this kind of engagement and innovation,
we believe we can fill the computer labs at the
University of the North for a price they can afford.

Brooke Partridge is Director of Business and
Market Development for HP's Emerging Market Solutions
Organization, a team that develops and commercializes
technology for developing economies.

Comment viewing options

Thanks for this article, it was the tipping factor as to whether I would renew my LJ subscription. And that tip was to No. Including a press release from HP as an article? Written by HP no less? I believe the word Linux appeared exactly three times in the entire thing (not including the misleading title).

Shame on you LJ. Time to let you go. Tell Marcel I'll miss his column, he should move somewhere else.

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